Kamen Rider Kuuga: Ancient Song
by Ice Wolf Fang
Summary: during an ill fated concert, friends Yusuke Godai, and Hibiki Tachibana manage to survive the destruction of the walking natural disaster known as Noise. A year later the two of them awaken the powers they unknowingly acquired. with the threat of monsters, ancient villains, and other reluctant teammates to deal with. Their lives will never be the same.
1. Prologe: Song of Revival

_'A little cuckoo chirps 8,008 times and coughs up blood' _A girl with chin-length black hair wearing a black and red school uniform thought as she stood in the rain by a bus stop carrying two bouquets of flowers. _"The saying has it that the little bird keeps singing even as it coughs up blood." _The girl gets on the bus and rides to her destination. '_The two best friends I had kept singing as well.' _the girl arrived at her destination, a cemetery. _'They kept singing and paid in blood.' _

As she found the marker that she wanted to she collapsed and started to break down in tears. "I want to see you. I hate… that I can't… Hibiki, Yusuke." In front of her were two pictures, one of a girl with a clueless expression on her face and the other of a boy with a similar expression.

Kamen Rider Kuuga: Ancient Song

'_The best friends I had kept singing on the battlefield.'_

* * *

Prologue: song of revival

**[Two years ago]**

At a huge futuristic stadium, two people - a girl with short light brown hair, with caramel colored eyes was wearing a white jacket over a pink, collared shirt, and a boy with shaggy black hair, wearing a long-sleeved grey shirt and black pants were waiting in a long line to get inside. "Eh! What do you mean you can't make it, Miku?" she exclaimed into her phone.

"Yah, geez Hibiki, screech a little louder why don't you!" the girl's companion said as he plugged his now aching ears.

"_Sorry, Hibiki, my grandmother in Morioka got into an accident."_ her friend explained, _"We're packing up to go there now."_

"But, Miku, I don't know a thing about this group." The girl at the stadium, Hibiki, whined.

_ "I'm sorry, Hibiki; could you put Yusuke on for a sec?"_ Miku explained.

"Here, she wants to talk to talk to you." Hibki mumbled slightly.

"You have reached the office of Yusuke Godai. Leave a message." The now-named Yusuke joked causing both the girl next to him and the one on the phone to smile bemusedly.

_"Shut up, stupid."_ Miku chuckled. _"Look the reason I want to talk to you is to tell you to keep both of you out of trouble."_

"And the reason you didn't tell Hibiki yourself?" Yusuke asked.

_"Because I trust you to be the responsible one while I'm not there."_

"No argument there, Miku." The boy said nodding sagely. "Leave it to me I'll make sure Hibiki doesn't get lost."

_"Thank you Yusuke I'll see you guys when we get back." _She said hanging up.

"Well, Miku put me in charge in her stead to make sure you don't end up in some underground laboratory." He teased handing his friend back her phone.

"I'm not that bad Yusuke." Hibiki said, pouting.

"Remember our families' trip to Seto when we were seven?"

"Sometimes I think you guys just plain hate me." Hibiki sighed in defeat.

* * *

Inside the stadium in the backstage area, the workers were putting the final changes on everything. While they were doing that, a girl was wearing a hooded poncho kept her stage outfits clean with a lock of her blue hair poking through the hood's shadow was sitting behind a crate with her legs curled up to her body and held her hands together in a praying position. Another girl with long wild hair soon interrupted her from her pre-show ritual and dark red eyes in a similar poncho "Gets rather boring huh?" The second girl said sitting down on an adjacent crate. "I just want to go crazy out there already." The red head complained.

"I know what you mean." The blue-haired girl said.

"Don't tell me; are you nervous, Tsubasa?" the red head said.

"Of course I'm nervous, Kanade." Tsubasa said to the now named Kanade. "It's only natural. Sakurai-san said today is especially…" However, a gentle flick to the forehead interrupted the blunette.

"Why are you being so serious?" Kanade said trying to lighten her best friend/partner's mood.

Suddenly a tall muscular man with red hair, and gold eyes dressed in a red business suit interrupted them. "There you two are." The man spoke in a deep voice.

"Commander." Tsubasa said looking up at the man.

"Well, well, Old Man Genjuro!" Kanade said addressing the man now named Genjuro. "Come to wish us good luck?"

"I trust you two understand how important today is." Genjuro said to the two girls.

"No need to worry, Manager. we know that today is paramount blab, blab, blab." Kanade said casually. "Just leave everything to us, and make sure that hunk of rock doesn't blow us up."

"I'll hold you to that, Kanade." Genjuro said to his employees. "And don't worry it's in good hands. Today's performance will be paramount to mankind's future."

* * *

In an underground lab a group of scientists were setting up equipment necessary for their impending experiment, one that involved a slab of rock placed behind an observation deck. One of the scientists - a woman with long, brown hair tied up in a bun that rested on the top of her head, held in place with a butterfly shaped ornament and violet eyes. Said scientist was wearing a pair of yellow tinted pink glasses, a sea green blouse, a black skirt, and a standard white lab coat was answering her phone. "Hello~, Sakurai Ryoko speaking." She said to the person on the other end. "Everything is ready on our end."

* * *

"Understood, I'm on my way." Genjuro said into his phone to the aforementioned scientist.

"Leave the performance to us, alright?" Kanade said confidently, earning a nod from their manager.

As he was walking away, he called Dr. Sakurai again. "By the way was there any recorded activity from our _other _experiment?"

* * *

In the stadium's concessions area, Hibiki and Yusuke had just finished purchasing a pack of novelty glow-sticks and were making their way to their seats. "So Miku introduced you to these guys?"

"Yup, we were checking out some music one day and I heard one of their songs playing in the store." Yusuke explained, "I said they sounded pretty good, then Miku played one of their songs for me on her iPod and I was hooked."

"Are they really that good?" Hibiki asked.

As they passed through the gate, they could only marvel at how enormous the stadium was. The stage itself extended over the crowd like a bridge all the way around the arena, with a pair of bridges meeting in the center of the crowd. "You're about to find out." He responded.

* * *

"Alright all that's left is for all of us to do our part and we can call this endeavor a success." Kanade said to her costar. However, when she looked at her partner she saw a scared look on the blunette's face. Realizing this Kanade crept up behind her and gave her partner a reassuring hug. "You're so serious, Tsubasa. 'A reed in the wind lives on where oaks fall'."

"Kanade…" the blue haired girl muttered.

"You're my partner, Tsubasa." Kanade said stating the obvious. "If you keep acting all depressed like that it just won't be any fun."

Realizing her friend was right Tsubasa nodded her head in understanding. "And if we don't enjoy it, how can the audience?" she reminded herself.

"Exactly my point."

"Everything will work out as long as we're together." She said excitedly finally managing to get over her nerves. "Let's do this together, Kanade?"

"Definitely!" the red head said with conviction. "After all, we're Zwei Wing, the two wings that can reach the ends of the earth."

"We can overcome anything!" Tsubasa said as they prepared to go on stage.

**[Insert song: Gyakkou no Flugel]**

As the music began, the crowd broke into a frenzy of cheers. Feathers fell from the ceiling, and in only a few moments, the two females descended upon the runway. Kanade was wearing a light pink and hot pink strapless pleated dress with a light yellow petticoat, a large coral colored bow, a right wing on her bustle, a light pink scarf and white heels. While Tsubasa wore a high-collared crop top with white shorts, a lowly belted pleated skirt cut diagonally from her left hip, and a large light blue bow and left wing on her bustle. She also wore white and blue stocking up to her thigh, a pair of light blue boots with the left one reaching to her knee and the right reaching to her ankle. The two of them landed on either side of the center tower and began to do a dance that mirrored the other.

While in the stands, Hibiki and Yusuke cracked their glow stick and began to cheer with the mob mentality.

_"Kikoemasuka...?" Gekijou kanaderu MUJIIKU._

_ Ten ni. toki hanate!_

_ "Kikoemasuka...?" INOCHI hajimaru myakudou._

_ Ai wo tsuki agete._

_ Haruka kanata Hoshi ga ongaku to natta... Kare no hi._

_ Kaze ga kami wo sarau toki Kimi to boku wa KODOU wo uta ni shita._

_ Soshite yume wa hiraku yo._

_ Mita koto nai sekai no hate e..._

As the song got to the midway point, the stadium roof began to open up wing style letting the beautiful sunset flood in.

_ Yes, just believe. Kami-sama mo shiranai HIKARI de rekishi wo tsukurou._

_ Gyakkou no SHAWAA Mirai terasu._

_ Issho ni tobanai ka?_

_ Just feeling Namida de nureta HANE. _

_ Omokute habatakenai hi wa Wish._

_ Sono migi te ni soeyou Boku no CHIKARA mo._

_ Futari de nara Tsubasa ni nareru Singing heart._

Upon the song's completion, Tsubasa stood in front of Kanade, turned her back to her partner, dropped to one knee, and then both of them raised their hands to the sky as one would in prayer.

In the stands Yusuke was cheering like the rest of the crowd, while Hibiki was staring at the two singers looking like she was having the time of her life. _I can't look away! _She thought, her heart beating at hundred miles an hour. _Is this what it feels like at your first live concert?_

"They're awesome, right!" Yusuke yelled over the crowd, but either he was not loud enough or Hibiki was too focused on the performance. "I'll take that as a yes!"

* * *

In the laboratory under the stage, the experiment was going as planned. "Phonic Gain growth within expected range," reported a male scientist.

"I guess we can write this one off as a success." Dr. Sakurai said with a sense of accomplishment while Genjuro sighed with relief. "Great work everybody!"

* * *

**[Insert song Orbital Beat]**

"We're not done yet, folks!" Kanade shouted to the crowd riling them up further as she and Tsubasa began their next song.

* * *

Suddenly the room began to flash with red warning lights "What's going on?" Genjuro demanded.

"The dampening systems can't handle the rising internal pressure!" a male scientist said causing Genjuro's eyes to widen in panic.

"At this rate the relic will awaken and go berserk!" said a female scientist as their experiment's test subject began to emit an energy that started to warp and convulse until…

* * *

** *BOOOOOOOOM* **

The floor of the stadium exploded incinerating whoever was there. The ensuing panic was nothing short of a riot. As the idols wondered what happened, Kanade sensed a very familiar presence. "The Noise are coming!"

Outside the stadium a veritable army of flying blob-like creatures dive-bombed the stadium, combining to form a massive centipede monster. The mere sight of these monsters was enough to send the crowd into a panic. A second centipede monster appeared and started barfing out ooze that grew into an army of humanoid monsters with speaker-like faces and rabbit ears on their heads and blob-like monsters with frog-like front legs to move. The crowd tried to run but hardly anyone was able to escape these monsters. When a Noise did manage catch someone both that person and the Noise that caught them disintegrated into nothing more than a pile of ash.

No one was spared from the onslaught. Man woman and child were indiscriminately slaughtered by the walking natural disaster. "We have to fight, Tsubasa!" Kanade said, determined. "Only a gear can hurt these bastards!"

"But the commander hasn't…" but Kanade wasn't listening as she jumped off the stage into the chaos ready to fight. "Kanade!"

* * *

_Croitzall Ronzell Gungnir zillz_

**[Insert song: ****Kimi to Iu Oto Kanade Tsukiru made]**

After singing her song, Kanade was instantly changed into a new outfit consisting of a white, black, and orange bodysuit that exposed her stomach, a pair of black thigh-high boots, a pair of bulky gauntlets on her wrists, and a pair of rabbit ear-like headphones. The energy released from the transformation caused the Noise to change color.

Kanade brought her arms together causing her gauntlets to fuse and changed into an orange and white spear with a red, glass-like center. She charged at the Noise and using her spear she sliced two of the abominations in half, causing them to disintegrate; then she ran another one through. She continued to run and cut down any Noise that got close enough. Kanade then jumped high in the air and threw her spear which began to multiply as soon as it left her grip. The now numerous spears rained death on the natural disasters without mercy.

**Stardust∞Foton**

* * *

While Kanade was fighting in the stadium, in the lab, Genjurou, who appeared to be the only survivor, stood up and tried to look around. "Ryoko," he said, struggling. "Are you still alive, Ryoko?" Suddenly a rainbow-colored glow caught his attention. The source of the glow was the relic their experiment was focused around, which was somehow floating in midair. "The Armor of Nehushtan is… activating?" The red-haired man breathed out.

* * *

Back above ground, Tsubasa had also changed into an outfit similar to her Partner, except this one had blue coloring instead of orange, and had a blade on each of her ankles. Her weapon was a white katana which, along with the blades on her ankles, that cleaved any Noise she came across.

Kanade was continuously carving a warpath, creating a miniature cyclone with her spear that tore one of the mammoth-sized Noises to shreds.

**Last∞Meteor**

Together the two of them left nothing but ash in their wake. All the while Hibiki and Yusuke, still somehow alive, watched the battle unfold, immobilized by fear and shock. "What is…" the Noise suddenly began turning themselves into figurative bullets and shot themselves at the girls to no avail. The girls cut down any incoming monsters.

As the fight dragged on, the color in Kanade's equipment started to fade and flicker. "My suit's running out of power." She said in frustration, only to be blindsided by the Noise. Luckily her suit protected her from turning to ashes. However, the strain of battle was evident from the look of exhaustion on her face.

The stadium began to crumble and Hibiki and Yusuke began to fall as the floor crumbled under them, catching Kanades attention. "Are you alright Hibiki?" Yusuke asked as the two of them helped each other up.

"Yeah, somehow." Hibiki responded. She then noticed a group of orange Noise coming towards them, only to be cut down by Kanade.

"Get out of here, both of you!" the two of them hobbled away leaning on each other just as the Noise began another assault on the orange clad warrior. She spun her spear as fast as she could, shredding the monsters as they got near her. Unfortunately, the speed of their attack coupled with the fact that her armor was losing power caused bits of their remains to collide with and break parts of her armor.

Tsubasa noticed this as she sensed her partner's power drop. "Kanade!" she called out. The mammoth-sized Noise began to spew a substance at the girl but it met the same fate albeit with greater difficulty. "Kanade!" the blue-haired girl called again.

Noticing that something was wrong Hibiki looked at their defender. Suddenly, a good chunk of her armor was destroyed and sent shrapnel flying at the two friends. One shard hit Hibiki square in the chest sending her flying against a thankfully flat piece of ruble, blood flowed from the wound like crazy. "HIBIKI!" Yusuke cried as he immediately ran to his friend's side.

**[End song]**

"Oh god," Kanade said as she ran over to try and help. "Please, for the love of god don't die." She said kneeling down, discarding her spear.

"Hibiki please wake up!" Yusuke pleaded on the verge of tears. "I beg you please stay with me! Open your eyes!"

Hibiki managed to move slightly telling them she was holding on. Kanade smiled and went to grab her spear. "You know, I used to want to sing while feeling absolutely nothing." She said while walking towards the army of Noise. "Look at how many have come to hear me today. That's why I'm going to give them everything I have."

Yusuke was not paying attention he focused solely on cradling Hibiki's prone form. _'I'm sorry, Miku, I promised you I would look after Hibiki and I failed you.' _He thought to himself. _'Please, anyone, I will do anything, just let me save her!'_

_"Be careful what you wish for." _Yusuke heard a voice in his head.

"This will be my final aria." Kanade said raising her spear in the air with the tone of someone ready to die. "My Swan Song." She said as she began to sing, a single tear flowing from her eye. _"Gatrandis babel ziggurat, edenal._ _Emustolronzen fine…"_

"Don't do it Kanade!" Tsubasa shrieked knowing what would happen if she finished that song.

_"el balal zillz."_Kanade continued, ignoring her partner's plea.

Barely conscious, Hibiki managed to register how beautiful the song was "I can hear… a song…"

_'That's right. It's my final song; one that will burn out my life.' _Kanade told Hibiki telepathically, via the piece of her armor currently lodged in the brunette's chest.

_ "Gatrandis babel ziggurat edenal Emustolronzen fine el zillz…"_ She finished the song and a dribble of blood flowed down her lip. But instead of what she was expecting, her armor vanished and her necklace turned to dust. _'What the?' _she thought frantically. _'What just happened!'_ Just then she felt an enormous burst of power behind her. She turned around and saw a horned humanoid creature with insect-like eyes. She could not make out any specific details because the air around him was warping and shifting.

_'Wh-what is that?' _Tsubasa thought to herself. The humanoid raised his hand in the air and brought it down quickly. What happened next was beyond explanation. In all of one second what was once an army of nightmarish monsters was reduced to nothing more than a mound of ash in the wind, leaving the two idols utterly without words.

"What the hell… just…happened?" Kanade breathed out seeing five scars carved into the earth, leading to where the Noise once stood.

* * *

Somewhere in the mountains of Japan, something began to awaken from a long slumber.

* * *

Hibiki heard the sound of beeping as she opened her eyes. When she did she saw that there were a couple of doctors doing something to her. _'I'm…alive…?"_


	2. Chapter 1: Growing Rhythm

Ch 1: Growing Rhythm

**[1 year later]**

It has been a year since the now named Zwei Wing Catastrophe. The official report said that only four people miraculously survived that day. Two of those survivors were currently in a predicament. "Now then, Tachibana-san, Godai-san…" A blond haired woman wearing business clothing said in a scolding tone, startling the two in question. "Would you two care to explain why you look like you just walked out of a tornado?"

"Uh, well…" Hibiki began. Both she and Yusuke were looking rather worse for the wear. Yusuke was wearing a dark grey Gakuran uniform, while Hibiki wore a similarly colored Seifuku with a plaid skirt, and was currently carrying a cat in her arms. "This kitty climbed up a tree and couldn't get down."

"And I helped her out by giving her a height boost." Yusuke continued hesitantly.

"Go on." their teacher pressed.

"Well I thought it might be hungry." Hibiki explained.

"The two of you are in so much trouble!" their teacher practically roared.

**[After class]**

In Hibiki and Miku's dorm room, she and Yusuke collapsed on the floor in symbolic defeat. "That was awful." They said in unison.

"It's only the first day and I feel like I just went on a roller coaster a hundred times." Hibiki said sounding very exhausted.

"That goes double for me." Yusuke said in a similar tone

"It's your own faults for being such scatterbrains." Miku said to the two of them. "And why are you here Yusuke? Boys aren't allowed in the girl's dorm."

"Only after curfew, Miku…" The boy said weakly waving his arm for emphasis.

"Whatever. This wouldn't be such a big deal if you two didn't meddle so much." The black haired girl said.

"It's not meddling we're helping people, Miku." Hibiki said rolling over.

"Yeah, but you guys always take it too far." Miku argued, "People don't lend their textbooks to other students in the same class."

"It's ok; we'll just look off your book, Miku." Hibiki said before both of them went to the dorm room table.

"You two idiots really are a pair," the girl muttered.

"Hey, Hibiki, check it out." Yusuke said, handing his friend a magazine article.

"Oh my god, Tsubasa-san's new CD is coming out tomorrow!" she exclaimed happily, taking the magazine. "Tsubasa-san is so cool and confident." She said bringing the magazine to her chest.

"You guys entered Lydian to meet Tsubasa-san, right?" Miku said smiling at the two. "She must have had an amazing effect on the two of you."

"Yeah but we haven't seen her anywhere." Hibiki said slightly crestfallen.

"Well she is a top artist, so meeting her won't exactly be a walk in the park." Yusuke responded.

Hibiki then pulled the collar of her shirt to see all that remained of the incident a year ago: a scar in the shape of a forte symbol, situated right above the crevice of her chest. _'We were definitely saved by Zwei Wing that day.' _She thought to herself. _'But when I got of the hospital the only news we got was that Kanade-san had lost her singing voice from the trauma and that all the people there except the four of us had lost their lives to the Noise. Was it all just a dream?'_

"Well I'm going back to my dorm before it gets too late." Yusuke said breaking Hibiki from her thoughts. "See you guys tomorrow."

"Alright, see you tomorrow, Yusuke." Miku said as he headed out the door.

"Oyasumi, Yusuke!" Hibiki called

"You too, girls…" He called back _'I know what you were thinking about, Hibiki, the only way to figure out what happened that day is to ask Tsubasa-san,' _Yusuke thought. _'Although, that might be easier said than done.'_

**[That night]**

Outside the city along the mountain path, a horde of Noise moved along with the mindless goal of causing total destruction. The majority of the horde consisted of humanoid type Noise ranging from human-sized, to utterly colossal. Standing in their way was a battalion of armed soldiers trying to halt their advance. Their efforts however were futile as all of their weaponry simply passed through the natural disasters, as if they were ghosts. They were about to give up hope when suddenly…

_Imyutesu ame no habakiri tron…_

When the soldiers heard the song they turned to the sky and saw a helicopter doing a fly-by as a single person jumped out of the vehicle right in front of the horde.

**[Insert song: Zettou Ame no Habakiri**

The woman descended to the ground, a cocoon of light surrounding her. When the light vanished, the person revealed was none other than Tsubasa, donning the armor she wore a year ago, during the concert, except that the blades on her ankles were longer and more curved than they were a year ago. _"Tsubasa, cooperate with Division 1; see what they'll do." _Genjuro said through the earpiece under her headphones.

"No, I can take care of this myself." Tsubasa said calmly.

_"Tsubasa!" _her commander called in protest.

She drew her sword and dashed at the mob. She flipped onto her hands, did a split and spun like a top cleaving any of the abominations in her way in two.

**W**

**I**

**G**

**H**

**T**

**S**

**L**

**A**

**Y**

**E**

**R**

She then jumped into the air and created a vast amount of swords, willing them to rain down and impale the Noise.

**O**

**N**

**E**

**T**

**H**

**O**

**U**

**S**

**A**

**N**

**D**

**T**

**E**

**A**

**R**

**S**

Finally, the Tsuba of her Katana shifted and caused the blade to grow and lengthen covering the Tsuka. Carrying her transformed blade like it was nothing; she ran at the colossal Noise and jumped into the air as her blade crackled with energy. She swung the monster blade, releasing a shockwave of electricity.

**A**

**Z**

**U**

**R**

**E**

**F**

**L**

**A**

**S**

**H**

The blast bisected the menace, causing it to explode.

**[End song]**

The girl willed her armor to vanish while she caught a rope ladder from the helicopter as it passed by again. Unknown to anybody, an uninvited spectator was watching the whole fight from the trees _"Ienur mwiw eions tujnubw, ame no habakiri?" _the spectator said before it sprinted along the tree line toward the city.

The next day at Lydian Academy, the three friends were enjoying lunch while discussing the events of the Noise attack the night before (the cover story at least). "According to the SDF and SDRT," Miku said, reading the article on her phone. "The evacuation went along with relative ease, and damage was kept to a minimum. Or so they say."

"That's not too far from here, right?" asked Yusuke.

"Right…" The black-haired girl confirmed.

"Scary…" Hibiki said, voicing her opinion as she shoveled a bowl of rice in her mouth.

"Oh! Yusuke, there's an article about that incident at that dig site last year." Miku said turning the phone. "You were interested in it right?"

"Yeah, thanks, Miku?" He said taking the phone and then read the article aloud. "Acclaimed archeologist Dr. Sawatari speaks out about the tragic accident last year."

"And look, there's a video attached." Miku pointed out. Yusuke tapped the screen pulling up a loading screen.

The video loaded and a woman appeared on screen surrounded by press _"Dr. is there a reason you're coming out about this after an entire year?" _asked a member of the press.

_"My superiors asked for my silence while they investigated the incident." _The doctor explained.

_"And who might these superiors be?" _asked another member of the press.

_"I am not at liberty to discuss that at this time." _She responded, _"All I am willing to disclose is that the incident was a terrible and unfortunate tragedy. And in honor of those who lost their lives during this incident we will continue investigating the ruins."_

"Tragedy…?" Hibiki asked.

"Yeah…" Yusuke said doing a quick search on the phone. "While we were in the hospital I was checking my mail and saw a few reports of a cave-in at a dig sight in the mountains. The scary thing is, I think, is that the cave-in occurred on the day of the concert." After finding the article he was looking for, he tried to present it to his friends - only for it to be snatched out of his hand.

"Hey!" Miku complained before seeing who took her phone. "Ichijo-kun…?"

"That's Class Representative, Kohinata-san." The boy was average height, had a head of brown hair and brown eyes, and wore the standard Lydian male uniform. "And cell phones on campus property are against the rules."

"It's lunchtime, Ichijo-san," Yusuke said.

"And that is relevant, how, Godai-kun?" Ichijo asked, only for Yusuke to pull out a pocket handbook with the school's emblem on the cover.

"Right here, in the student handbook it says that as long as no inappropriate content is detected, students are allowed to use their cell phones during their lunch breaks." Yusuke said.

"I don't think a deviant like you has any right to-," the class representative began.

"Ahem?" a stern voice said clearing their throat. The entire cafeteria turned to the sources of the sound and saw a familiar blue-haired, blue-eyed girl, wearing the Lydian school uniform. "Ichijo-san I hardly think it's appropriate for a representative to be instigating an argument." Tsubasa said, crossing her arms.

"Kazanari-sempai," Ichijo gasped. The boy composed himself and said, "You're right, sempai, I don't know what got into me."

_'That was quick.' _Yusuke thought to himself.

"And besides, he's right," she said pulling out a copy of the book from her purse. She turned it to the page in question and handed it to him. "I never thought someone like you would miss something like this."

"Uh…uh…uh…" Hibiki managed to do a good fish impersonation. Tsubasa noticed her and made a motion to just below the corner of her mouth. Hibiki looked to where she was pointing and saw a few grains of rice stuck to her face.

"You have something on your face," Tsubasa said walking away.

"You ok, Hibiki?" Yusuke said, tapping the girl's shoulder. She turned to him with a blank look on her face.

"Yusuke," she said. "Do me a favor, please."

"What?" the boy said as she handed him her bowl.

"Use that, and kill me?" She exclaimed as she collapsed to the floor.

"Can I have my phone back now?" Miku said sticking out her hand.

**[That afternoon]**

"I freaking blew it, guys!" Hibiki said with her head on the desk. "Tsubasa-san must think I'm a total airhead now."

"She wouldn't be that far off." Miku said taking a playful stab at her friend's misfortune.

"Why couldn't you have honored my request and killed me, Yusuke?" Hibiki exclaimed in despair.

"I'm not going to jail just because you made a fool of yourself for the umpteenth time."

"You guys are horrible." She pouted. "Anyway, Miku, are you going to be at that for a while?"

"That's what it's looking like." The raven-haired girl said as she organized some paperwork, inciting a sigh from Hibiki. "Oh, I get it. Tsubasa-san's new CD is being released today. But aren't CD's kind of old fashioned?"

"Oh shut up!" The other girl said jovially. "First-edition CD's are packed with bonus material!"

"Then they're probably already sold out."

"Oh crap!" Hibiki said jolting up. "I need to get there fast!"

"I'll drive you there, Hibiki." Yusuke said.

"She'll never get a copy if you take that hunk of junk you call a scooter, Yusuke." Miku quipped.

"At least it's faster than running." Yusuke replied.

"Geez, guys, can we just go already!" she said grabbing the back of the boy's collar and dragged him out of the room.

"Those two really are a pair." Miku sighed.

"Come on, Yusuke, can't this thing go any faster?" Hibiki shouted as the bike they were on moved along at a fair 20 mph on the side streets.

"If I go any faster it'll start shaking and I'll lose control!" Yusuke said over the grinding sputter coming from his jalopy of a scooter.

"Do me a favor please, find a job so you can trade this thing in for a real bike?" she said as they moved along. All of a sudden, the bike braked to an abrupt stop causing Hibiki's head to collide with her friend's back. "Ow, ow, ow, what the heck was that for?" she groaned.

"Hibiki, run…" Yusuke said, urgently.

"What?" Hibiki said in confusion.

"Look around." He said slowly.

"I don't see anything." She said.

"In… the store…" Yusuke said through the lump in his throat pointing at a nearby convenience store.

When she saw what he was talking about, the girl's eyes widened in fear. "Noise." She whimpered. In the store there was nothing more than piles of ash that decreased in size in the wind.

"We need to get out of here," the boy said grabbing her arm. They ditched the bike, ready to get out of there, like bats out of hell, until they heard a scream from nearby. Turning to the source of the sound, the two ran as fast as they could toward it.

At the same time, Tsubasa entered a high-tech control room looking like a girl on a mission. "Tsubasa!" a familiar voice said. The blue haired girl turned and saw her former partner, Kanade Amou.

"Kanade…"

"Don't worry, the others will fill you in." the former idol said.

"We're trying to lock onto a signal right now," one of the operators said. "Our first priority is identifying the horde's location."

Yusuke and Hibiki located a little girl who managed to escape from the Noise. Thinking quickly, Yusuke told the girl to get on his back. The girl complied and the three of them ran through the alleyways until they reached a waterway where they were surrounded by a horde of blue humanoid, and brown blob-like types of Noise. "Oh! No!" Hibiki said as they saw the creatures.

"Onee-chan, Onii-chan!" the little girl cried as she clung to Yusuke's back.

"Don't worry," Yusuke said. "We won't leave you. Come on, Hibiki." He said as he grabbed her hand.

"Right!" she said as the three of them plunged into the water. They swam to the other side and Yusuke helped the girls out of the water. Just as he was leaving the water, a creature blindsided him sending him back into the drink. "Yusuke!"

"Don't worry!" Yusuke shouted bringing his head out of the water. "Get to safety! I promise you; I won't die." Hibiki complied, took the little girl by the hand, and ran. "Alright, freak show; let's see what you're made of!"

"Commander we've detected an anomaly!" one of the operators reported.

"What kind of anomaly?" Genjuro asked, looking at the screen.

"We're detecting a moving energy signature that is steadily growing."

"Run it through the scanner and see if we have a match on record." Ryoko commanded. The operators did as they were ordered and there was an instant result. "There's no way, we lost it during the catastrophe."

"The Arcle…!" Genjuro said.

"Commander, let me go out there and retrieve the jewel!" Tsubasa requested.

"Denied." her uncle responded. "I don't know why the Arcle's energy signature is registering, but your priority is to deal with the Noise."

"Understood, commander…"

_'It's happening again.' _Kanade thought, remembering the day of the concert where she saw a normal boy turn into a monster. "Commander, let me go instead." she requested.

"Kanade…?" Genjuro said in surprise.

"Please, Genjuro." she pleaded. "I want to know what happened that day."

"You'll never get there quick enough on your own." Ichijo said, surprising everyone. "We'll take a copter." He said dangling a set of keys.

"I knew there was a reason we kept you around, Ichijo."

Yusuke finally managed to get ashore and looked at the thing that separated him from Hibiki. It was an abomination on par with the Noise. Unlike the Noise, however, this creature was more human in appearance but not by much. The creature had green skin and its head looked like a spider's with six black eyes and eight spider-like legs coming out of the side of its head. A pair of bone-like claws protruded out of each of its knuckles. The scarce clothing it wore consisted of a tribal collar-piece with web-like decorations, a light brown loincloth held up by a belt with a spider-like insignia on the buckle. A pair of wrapped bandages made of the same material adorned its lower arms, and finally it had two black bands on each of its limbs.

"Who are you?" Yusuke asked getting his breath back. "What are you? And why did you attack me?"

_"Ebwokdh ebuskir huen so jruebjs relic." _the creature said. _"Wnnca snelae ensopwee berdrnri."_

"What?" Yusuke said _'Either this guy hit me harder than I thought, or that wasn't Japanese, or any known language.'_

_ "Dnunfineri cbdnfuebiscb efubs wjehd cwlxbxhsb!" _the creature said as it rushed Yusuke, only for him to move out of the way, striking the monster in the process.

"Where did that come from?" Yusuke exclaimed. "I haven't taken a martial arts class in my life!"

_"Sinrnek rusa tbuejb biw nnfid…" _The creature growled as it backhanded Yusuke, sending him to the concrete.

Hibiki and the child continued running for their lives with the little girl on her back despite the protest of her tired, burning limbs. "Please, don't give up," She said through labored breaths. "We'll find a shelter. I'm sure of it!" Eventually her legs gave out on her and she fell on the ground losing her grip on the girl in the process.

Desperately gasping for breath, Hibiki tried to scrounge up some form of energy before remembering Kanade's words from a year ago _"don't give up on life!"_ going over the memory she picked herself up and managed to get both of them to a nearby oil refinery.

'_That day…'_ Hibiki thought to herself. _'I'm certain that she saved our lives.' _The girls maneuvered their way through the pipes and machinery of the refinery. _'She saved us by singing a gentle, yet powerful song.'_ The two of them climbed to the top of one of the buildings and finally took a moment to rest.

"Are we going to die?" The little girl said, exhausted.

Sitting up, Hibiki looked at her compassionately, and shook her only to turn and see a horde of Noise behind them.

"Are we getting close, Genjuro?" Kanade asked into her headset while she and Ichijo flew their way to where the Arcle signal originated.

_"You should be right on top of it." _The man responded.

"Uh, Kanade, the Noise' aren't normally, fleshy, right?" Ichijo asked looking out the open door of the copter.

Surprised by the boy's comment Kanade looked out and saw the beat down t. What she saw was the fight between Yusuke and the unidentified creature. "I'm getting us down there, now!" she said steering them over to the fight.

"Wait what!" Ichijo exclaimed as he held on.

The boy tried to get up but the creature kicked him in the gut causing him to roll across the ground. Coming to a stop, Yusuke started hacking and coughing from the pain, signs of blood evident in his hocked up spittle. "Yeah something's broken." He moaned getting to his knees. _'I don't believe it, is this how it ends, at the hands of some freak of nature?'_

The claws on the creature grew to the size of short-swords as it raised its arm to deal the finishing blow. _"Fidjen, wnia rniebu encs!" _the creature roared as it brought its arm down.

_'No!" _Yusuke thought in defiance. He caught the limb - much to the creature's surprise. "I won't accept death." He said standing up. "I swore I'd come back to Hibiki and I intend to keep that promise." As he said that, a flash of light erupted making the creature cover its eyes. In the moment of blindness, a punch from Yusuke's left hand connected with the creature's abdomen. When it did, the limb was suddenly donned in a black glove with white armor that covered his arm and a gold bracelet with a white gem embedded in it. "I'll never…

The Noise started to close in on the two girls as the younger one dug herself into Hibiki's chest in fear. _'There must be something…'_ Hibiki thought. _'There must be something I can do!' _"Don't…"

"GIVE UP ON LIFE!"

_Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron._

As the final note left Hibiki's lips, orange light exploded from her scar.

At the same time, Yusuke was beginning to overpower the creature, striking it with his other limbs, causing them to be donned in similar armor.

**[Insert song: Synchrogazer -Aufwachen Form-]**

"I've isolated the signal!" one of the control room operators announced.

"Position identified." another said.

"Arcle signature experiencing abnormal change in wavelength…"

"High-output energy signature detected!"

"Identify both ASAP!" Ryoko ordered. She looked at the readings on the computer and her eyes widened in surprise. "Could it be… an Aufwachen waveform?" When she said that, two words appeared on the screen.

**KUUGA … GUNGNIR**

"Kuuga…!" Genjuro exclaimed. "And Gungnir…!"

Hearing the name of her old partner's Symphogear, Tsubasa's eyes widened in shock and her face darkened in anger.

With Yusuke, the more he struck the creature the more armor began to form. The first thing to appear was a black bodysuit with a pair of white and gold knee guards and two gold anklets. Then a simple white chest-piece with a gold collar appeared followed by a silver technological belt with an orange gem in the center. Finally, a black helmet with a silver, insect-like mouthpiece, orange eyes, and a gold horn-like crest in the center appeared over his head. One last punch sent the monster into a nearby wall completing his change.

The same thing began to happen with Hibiki. The beam of light continued to shoot out of her forte-shaped scar until she suddenly doubled over in pain and her body began to change on the cellular level. Her skin began to harden and her canines began to elongate. Finally, an orange and white leotard appeared, replacing her previous clothes, along with a pair of black metal boots, white and orange armored gauntlets, and a pair of white and black headphones. Soon after, a menagerie of machines burst out of her back. "YAHHH!" She screamed in pain as all of the machines disappeared and her boots, gauntlets, and headphones hissed into place. When everything was finished, Hibiki launched to her feet with a sadistic grin on her darkened face.


End file.
